Rulebuilding : exploring design worlds through end-user programming

Abstract

Compositional rules have been proposed as the generating mechanisms of form in architectural treatises since Vitruvius. Recently, computational approaches to architecture have pursued a language for rulebuilding rather than the rules themselves. However, architects have resisted adopting computation as a means of expression, presumably because of the embedded culture of two-dimensional representations. A recent change in the construction industry from manual to automated fabrication techniques suggests a parallel shift in architectural representation from drawings to procedural descriptions of design. As such, computation can help architects to relate creative design to a process of manufacturing and assembly. In order to accommodate this, it is necessary to develop a new vocabulary for describing compositional rules which relies on an understanding of both design process and products as computational objects.